1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display and an electronic device.
2. Description of Related Art
Transflective liquid crystal displays can include a liquid crystal layer disposed between an upper substrate and a lower substrate. The inner surface of the lower substrate is provided with a reflective film formed of metal, such as aluminum. The reflective film has an opening for transmitting light and functions as a transflector. In order to improve brightness and contrast, a transflective liquid crystal display having a structure called multi-gap structure is disclosed. See, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 11-242226. In this structure, the thickness of the liquid crystal layer is different between the reflective display area and the transmissive display area. The reflective display area corresponds to the area in which the reflective film is formed. The transmissive display area corresponds to the opening.
However, the known transflective liquid crystal device has a problem in that the viewing angle in the transmissive display mode is narrow. This is because the optical design flexibility is restricted. Since the transflector is provided on the internal surface of the liquid crystal cell in order not to produce parallax, reflective display needs to be performed with only one polarizer provided at the viewer side. In order to solve this problem, Jisaki et al. disclose a novel transflective liquid crystal display including vertically aligned liquid crystal in “Development of transflective LCD for high contrast and wide viewing angle by using homeotropic alignment”, M. Jisaki et al., Asia Display/IDW'01, p. 133-136 (2001). It has the following characteristics:
(1) A “VA (vertical alignment) mode” is adopted. In the VA mode, molecules of liquid crystal with negative dielectric anisotropy are aligned vertically with respect to the substrate, and then tilted by an applied voltage.
(2) A “multi-gap structure” is adopted. In the multi-gap structure, the thickness of the liquid crystal layer (cell gap) is different between the transmissive display area and the reflective display area (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
(3) An “alignment division structure” is adopted. The transmissive display area is a regular octagon in shape. A projection is provided in the center of the transmissive display area on the opposite substrate so that the liquid crystal molecules are tilted in eight directions in the transmissive display area.